NOTATION IS KEY

I stared at her profile picture. I didn’t think she was that pretty. Or pretty at all. Maybe it was just a very unflattering photo. I wasn’t sure what to do. I hadn’t thought about him, let alone her, for months. I didn’t want to think about it, them. But it had been bothering me for days now. I couldn’t get it out of my head.

“You should treat people the way you want them to treat you”My mom’s quote echoed in the back of my head.

A few weeks ago I had stumbled upon his account by accident. I had never known his last name, but his profile picture gave him away. I had met him on one of those apps where you can meet new people. Although it wasn’t really just for meeting new people. At least, no one really used it for that purpose. We had been texting back and forth for quite some time. Flirting, talking dirty and making plans to meet up in real life, which I never really wanted nor acted on. The chatting had been nice for quite some time, until I decided that I loved my partner too much to ever really do anything. I deleted my account, our chatting history and his phone number. Even though it had always been just chatting, I knew that in a way it was still regarded as cheating. I would regard it as cheating.

I had quickly forgotten about him and our conversions, until I had saw his face pop up in the section of possible new friends. Suddenly, al of it had come crashing back to me. I remembered he had said he that had a girlfriend. I remembered he had said that he cheated on her regularly. I remember he had said that she never knew any of it, and that he still lived with her and that he loved her. It was a mystery to me how one could have sex with someone else when someone was already in a loving relationship. Sure I was guilty of cheating myself, but talking was all it was. I had enjoyed the attention but I could’ve never gotten myself to do anything real.

And now I was looking at her face. The girl he lied to every day but supposedly loved.

I didn’t know what to do.

“You should treat people the way you want them to treat you”

This quote meant tome that I should tell her. I would want to know when my partner was cheating on me. But would she? I would ruin not only her relationship, but also her life. I remembered that he mentioned that they had been together for a long time, which meant the revelations would be all the more painful. Did I really want to live with the idea that I had ruined her life, past and maybe future? Besides, I wasn’t even sure how to tell her. I wouldn’t message her with my own profile, of that I was sure. That would give away that I, in a way, had been cheating to. No, I didn’t want it to be traced back to me. But sending someone a message with a fake temporary profile saying that their partner had been cheating on them for years, wouldn’t be believable. And I didn’t even have proof to back up my statement, since I had deleted all evidence of our conversations.

I sighed.

But why would a total stranger message a girl to tell her that her boyfriend was cheating on her? Why would someone lie about that? To break people up, yes, but still. There was a chance that she would ignore the message, but that it would still linger on in her mind. Maybe it would give her some doubt, causing her to look through his stuff, and still finding out. It would totally destroy her. I didn’t want that, but I felt like not telling her would be an even bigger crime. She deserved happiness. With someone who was loyal to her.

If I really wanted to do this, I knew I had to do this as best as I could. Make the message as believable as I could. I wanted to save her. I had to save her.